Okay guy, here it is. I'm sorry for the... disappearance, but some things happened. For one, I've been busy, really busy. Then I got rejected for the uni I wanted to go to, so now I'm going to go to my plan B. It's a very reluctant plan B, though. Besides that, I've been plagued by writer's block for months. So there, I hope this isn't too bad, I'm really out of it and I'm trying to remember all the details.
Most of these are shorter scenes but that's how most of this year is going to go. There's not much that takes a long time to take place.
But I'm back, so... yay? I hope you all don't hate me and that you'll keep reading the story. I probably don't deserve it and I should say that updates will be even more hectic seeing as I start my FINAL final exams soon.
Anna took Theo's arm as she got off the train, grimacing slightly as other students crowded around them. Carefully they waded their way among the other teenagers towards the carriages. In the distance they could hear Professor Grubbly-Plank calling to the first years to follow her.
Theo cast Anna a curious look but she shook her head at him. To discuss anything now they'd have to shout and shouting led to being overheard.
It took a small while to wrestle their way through the thick crowd but eventually they made it, only for Anna to freeze in her tracks. There were... winged horses pulling the carriages. And not the pretty ones like Pegasi. These were skeletal and dark and almost frightening with pupil-less eyes staring out into the masses. Without a second glance she let got of her boyfriend and stepped forwards, extending a hand to the animal.
"Anna?" Draco asked, coming up behind them with the others. "What are you doing?"
"They're..." She began. She knew what they were but the name escaped her. "... thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen death."
An uncomfortable silence stretched out for a few seconds before she huffed and got in the carriage, ignoring the extended hands of her boyfriend and cousin that tried to help her.
Once they were all seated inside, albeit somewhat cramped what with them being eight people, the carriage rode off. The journey was spent mainly in silence beside Pansy and Daphne hurriedly starting a hushed conversation about something or another. That was until Theo opened his mouth.
"So where is Hagrid?" He asked.
Anna shrugged. "Somewhere in France, I suppose, in the mountains. That's where the giants are anyway."
"Giants?" Draco's face was morphed into something between disgust, fear and shock. "Why?"
"Because the Dark Lord is forming an alliance with them and it's not a long shot to assume Dumbledore will want to stop that from happening. It's pretty obvious that he would send a half giant instead of a human for that job." She looked out the window. "Not that he'll succeed. The Dark Lord is offering things Dumbledore could not hope to match."
"Like what?"
"Like human bodies for them to rip and break and such. Godfather has small respect for muggles, as you know, and they've been disappearing quite a bit lately." She answered, looking down at her hands with discomfort.
Blaise grimaced and crossed his arms. "Now that's just distasteful."
Anna hummed in agreement. Theo slid a hand between hers and squeezed, offering her a bit of comfort.
Soon enough the carriage arrived at the entrance to the school, where students were spilling through the doors into the Entrance Hall. The eight Slytherins made their way inside, taking their seats at the Slytherin table while keeping the image of free spirited friends catching up from a long summer. Their voices were elevated, their faces had morphed into exited smiles and their hands were gesturing eccentrically. Lies, of course, all of them.
Fred watched the curly haired girl from across the Great Hall. She looked so normal. How could someone so normal fuck everyone up so badly? On the one hand, he got it. She was scared, she felt like she had no choice, she had identity issues. He got it, but still. It was a terrible, horrible, disgusting, shocking and awful thing to do.
He huffed and slid a bit closer to his twin. George had been talking to Lee, but now he turned to look back at Fred.
A worried frown formed on his face. "What?" He muttered.
Fred shrugged. "Conflicted."
There was no need for him to say anything else, George understood. The younger twin bumped him with his shoulder.
"Yeah, it's messed up. Everything is, nowadays." He followed his brother's line of sight to Anna. "She's not completely bad, but she's still not at all good. You know? She's looking out for herself. Nothing surprising there."
"It's not right." Fred insisted. "She's a bad person. Sirius and Tonks don't realise that, with all the defending of her they're doing."
"Yeah, maybe they're a bit blinded by being family. Maybe they understand why she's so desperate to keep hers... since, you know, they don't have much family themselves." He sighed. "Don't think I don't know that she's bad, but she's human, Freddie." George told him. "I mean, not everyone can be an amazing human like Harry. Harry's so good. He's a hero. Some people are just people, and some people are bad people because they're selfish. That's what she is, right? Selfish."
"Yeah. D'you think we should talk to her?"
"...No. Bad idea. Let's watch her first. You know, get a feel for what she's up to." The younger twin looked up just in time to catch her eye. He glared, she looked taken aback and turned back to chat to her friends. Were they friends though? You never knew with snakes, sometimes they just used each other and never looked back.
"Good idea." Fred agreed. "We'll talk to her later on, but first-" He turned to the other fifth years around them. "What do you all think about Connors? Heard she's quite popular for a Slytherin muggleborn."
That drew the attention of not only the golden trio, but also the other people in fifth year. Lavender scowled and Parvati seemed uncomfortable.
"She thinks she's all that. I don't know why the Slytherins all fawn over her, particularly Malfoy and Nott. Aren't they supposed to hate muggleborns? What are they doing with her?" The first girl humphed.
"She's a half-blood, actually." Harry snapped. "And Malfoy doesn't like her like that, he's her best friend."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were so defensive about her." She replied scathingly.
"I'm not, I'm just-"
"She's nice." Neville cut in, voice quavering a little but loud enough to stop the argument. "I haven't talked to her often but she stood up for me in second year. To Malfoy. And he listened."
Of course Fred and George knew why that was. She was his cousin, it wasn't weird that they'd be friends and it wasn't weird that the ones close to both of them knew who she was. What was weird was why she'd chosen to stand up for Neville.
"Well, Nott's gotten lucky. Wether Lavender likes her or not, you gotta admit that she's a looker. Plus, she's smart but not in your face about it." Seamus grinned.
"Or maybe she doesn't acknowledge you enough to be in your face about it." Dean teased him.
Seamus shoved him. "Shut up."
Fred rolled his eyes and started summing everything up in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "So she's pretty, she's smart, she has Malfoy wrapped around her finger, Lavender doesn't like her-"
"No." Hermione cut him off. "Those are the rumours, the truth is we don't know much about her. Her group of friends is very close knit. Everything that's private stays private. We don't really know anything about what goes on in Slytherin house."
George hummed, looking at his brother. They'd really have to do some digging, huh?
They were so immersed with each other that they didn't catch the suspicious look Harry was giving them.
Anna had been watching them for a few minutes. She'd noticed them watching her, they weren't exactly being subtle, but she didn't know why they'd taken such an interest in her all of a sudden. They had never interacted with her before, never even look at her twice. That was strange.
"What is it?" Theo asked from beside her.
Anna turned back to her friends, who were following her line of sight curiously.
"Don't." She warned them. "The Weasley twins have been watching me since we came in."
"Why?" Pansy scowled, turning her head back to her empty plate immediately. "Didn't Snape say the Order was keeping them and the rest of the underage wizards out of everything?"
"Yes but... since when do those two keep to any rules?" Anna sighed. "They must have found out something, before today I doubt they paid any more attention to me than to Tracey."
"You want us to take care of them?" Vincent muttered. "There's some other seventh years that-"
"No, no." Anna waved it off. "They could be useful eventually, what with all the plans we have for Hogwarts. Just... find out what they know and what they want."
"Done." The heavy boys answered.
"Speaking about plans for Hogwarts," Daphne began, looking up at the teachers' table with a scrunched up nose. "Could she be more gross? You'd think she drowned in pink paint."
Blaise shook his head and smiled placatingly at her. "Don't worry, Daph. Bad fashion sense isn't contagious."
As one they all turned to look at Umbridge, who was sitting and chatting to Snape, who in turn looked bored to death.
"Did it have to be her? Really? I'd rather spend time with Granger. The mudblood has better cardigans than that one." Pansy scowled.
"Can we stop focussing on her clothing and talk about the fact that's she's a horrible person who we need to have eating from the palm of our hands?" Anna rolled her eyes. "Or is that too much to ask?"
"But did it have to be her?" Daphne almost whined.
"Yes, it did." Anna muttered. "She's a perfect candidate, for the exact reasons you have complains. Don't even think you're fooling us into believeing you dislike her because of her fashion sense. Just be grateful you're not the one sucking up to her."
"Definitely. That pleasure goes to Draco and I." Pansy scowled.
"And here I thought you loved us." Draco muttered sarcastically.
Anna rubbed her eyes. She'd been reading for such a long time that she couldn't stay awake. Nowadays she didn't have the explicit fear to keep her going through all night readings, even if she wanted to. Even if the last thing she wanted to do was sleep.
She closed the book in her lap -horcruxes, horcruxes and more horcruxes- and put it down on the table beside her chair. The green fire in the Common Room did nothing to warm her up, it only gave a light dim enough to barely be able to read. Of course in summer the heat of a fire was unnecessary, but even if it had been the dungeon wouldn't have been warmed by it. The rest of the room was empty, as it tended to be at three in the morning, but somehow it felt better to be in there than in her room. She could go crazy in her room; it was too small to conduct research on topics so... sensitive for her her.
Yes, sensitive was right. With every page she read the hope she had for getting rid of the horcrux inside of her without dying diminished. She was getting close to desperate, but she knew she had time. It nothing else, she'd keep it to herself.
With a small sigh she pulled her bare feet up onto the armchair with her and wrapped her arms around her knees. Sometimes she felt like she was falling apart. When she was alone, faced with the possibility of her really not coming out of this alive. She wanted to live. At least, she wanted to achieve more than just surviving. What exactly that was she didn't know. She was in Slytherin, she should be ambitious and cunning. Cunning she was, but she didn't know what her ambition was. Not dying wasn't much of one, revenge had lost its appeal, her family... the feelings towards that were complicated. Really she'd never had much time to figure out her true ambition, to know what she wanted to be.
For now she wanted to be alive, and she had little chance of being even that.
"Why are you still here?"
Anna jumped at the sound of Theo's voice, looking around with wide eyes. A small smile spread on her face as he walked closer. The messed up hair and pajamas made him seem less of a noble son that he usually looked. He looked normal, like a boy that shouldn't be planning how to take over the government so that he wouldn't be sent to jail. But somehow she knew he was doing it for her. How could she tell him she didn't know how to save herself? That she was almost completely sure she was going to die?
She couldn't.
"Couldn't sleep." Anna admitted, streching her hand out towards him. "So I decided I might as well do something useful with my time."
He took it, still looking sleepy, and pulled her to her feet. Gently he took her into his arms. He had grown taller and with her being barefoot she could barely place her chin on his shoulder, so instead she tucked her head under his chin.
"Nothing's wrong?" He muttered. "Other than the usual."
"No. Nothing new. Just wondering what to do with my p- with Bellatrix and Rodolphus." She answered. Technically she wasn't lying, she was Always thinking about those two. "But I am tired now."
Then she moved back and grabbed her book, still holding his hand in her free one. Without thinking about it she pulled him behind her to her room where they dropped onto the bed. Theo pulled the thin sheets over them and they fell asleep curled into each other.
Anna and Theo passed Daphne and Blaise at the Skytherin table, heading to where Draco, Pansy, Vince and Greg were sitting. They had to pretend they didn't have as much contact with those two otherwise everyone would know they had spies throughout the school. That would be counterproductive.
They sat down for lunch.
"How was Ancient Runes?" Draco asked as they sat down, taking a bit out of his warm sandwich. He had the irritated expression on his face which he usually had after Divination as he moved a bit to the side so they could take a seat.
"Interesting as always." Theo told him, smirking. "How was Divination, enjoying the crazy bat?"
He got glares in response.
"She kept going on and on about Potter dying. As if we don't realize that that is a genuine possibility." Draco snapped. "Just like all those other teachers going around reminding us about our OWLs thinking that we don't have more important things going on. There's a Dark Lord going on, hello?"
"Not so loud." Pansy hushed. "Just because Slytherins keep their trap shut doesn't mean that others do."
"Speaking about that." Theo nodded towards the doors of the Great Hall.
Daphne and Blaise had gotten up, beautiful and terrifying power couple that they were, and like obedient puppies a handful of students had gotten up from their tables and followed them out. Only two children from Gryffindor, quite a few of Ravenclaw and Slytherin and a handful of Hufflepuffs. Of course lions and badgers would be more hesitant to spy for a couple of snakes, particularly with what had been going on lately what with the Dark Lord being revived. Ravens and snakes... well that's a whole different story, right? Smart people, cunning people, they know what to do to survive even if some of it goes against their morals.
The students of the other houses were going for Blaise, the Slytherins for Daphne. It was a deal they'd made. Neither wanted too much work, and the snakes needed to have more attention. After all, they all understood when jumping ship would be beneficial, even Daphne. That meant that someone had to keep a close eye on them.
Anna was holding her book so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Umbridge had been deflecting the students' questions, giving vague or even insulting answers to every single one of them. All that babble about 'safe' and 'risk-free' learning was bullshit, people need to take risk to learn, people can't be stuck in a bubble their whole lives. All that babble about having had wizards much older and cleverer than Granger devise a study programme for them was complete shite, Anna had had Gibbon choose the book and limitations an hour and a half. None of what she was saying was more than empty words.
In a way she knew it was exactly what needed to be done. She knew she could not intervene. But Umbridge not only insulted Lupin, -who Anna had a lot of respect for, even Draco did- she kept going on and on about how their teachers had been terrible -admittedly, Barty had been of questionable mentality and Lockhart had been a disaster- and about how they don't need to be prepared for the real world. As if the real world could not reach them in a classroom, as if the room was somehow an escape for the horrors of life.
She knew it was bullshit. She knew Umbridge knew it was bullshit. Anna had almost written this word for word, but still. Her blood boiled listening to this and she knew that if she hadn't put up the barrier in her mind Harry would feel her emotions. Or most probably he wouldn't because they wouldn't be any different from his. He was getting desperate, she could see it, she could almost feel it.
Anna was almost regretting picking her, at least she was definitely regretting making her cousin put up with her for a whole year. Pansy would never forgive her either.
Not long later, minutes really, Harry was sent out of the class. Umbridge put them back to reading and she sat down to read the Prophet at her desk. Ignoring the renewed attempts of Granger to ask questions.
Anna pursed her lips and turned to Draco. "He's getting detention." She stated.
"Quite obviously." He answered, doodling into the margin of his notebook. "So?"
"She set dementors on him once, she could do much more damage on a one on one meeting. Regular one on one meetings." Anna insisted. "I want to know what she does there so I can figure out for how much I want to send her to Azkaban later. Get me the information."
Draco huffed. "Fine. I'll help you in your protective streak over Potter, but you have to give me time. I can't get close to her yet, at least not enough to find out such sensitive things"
Anna nodded, not even trying to deny the 'protective' jab. After all, it was true. She felt guilty for what she'd done to him, but beyond that she felt close to him. She could relate to him, he was family, he was thrust into all this without consent. Certainly much less consent than she'd had, at least she got some sort of power and a way out. Not him. Because of her.
Draco was doing his tryout for the Quidditch team. Not far from him, Tracey sat on her broom, hovering close by the goals. She had to be at the tryouts, it had to appear like she was chosen for no other reason than her skills on a broom. Which was definitely never the case on the Slytherin team; almost every single one of them bought their way in. Draco had gotten the whole team new broom his second year, which guaranteed his spot on the team for as long as he wanted it. Tracey had agreed to work for Daphne, and by extension Anna, as a spy and so Anna had had no trouble in having Draco to talk to the Captain. Of course she hadn't had anything to offer before, the Davis family wasn't overly rich or well known.
Anna was sitting with all of her friends in the stands. There were only Slytherins around so there was no reason for Daphne and Blaise to not sit with them. In fact, this was a perfect opportunity to sit together away from the other slytherins. Now they could report without being overheard, and after almost three weeks at school there should be enough to report.
She slid a bit closer into Theo's side and he held her a bit tighter around the waist. Maybe she's been a bit more close than usual lately but she needed the support. She really did and she was trying so hard to convince herself that that was alright.
"Well go on." She told them, eyes following her cousin's flight patterns. "The tryouts don't last all day."
Daphne cleared her throat and folded her legs. Her fingers pulled her crimson skirt further down her thighs before she started. Feeling vulnerable, maybe?
"Well, you handled Millicent's uncle and Draco handled Tracey. Those two were the last ones that needed to be persuaded, all the other trustworthy non-Death Eater Slytherins have been handled." She said. "I made sure they keep an eye on the teachers and that they try not to discuss anything sensitive around Snape -I still don't know why you don't trust him- and that they know to not openly cross Umbridge." She swallowed. "Most of them were actually opposed to sabotaging her plans, even if you told them to. They agree with most of her opinions, but I made sure that they understood that it's in no way beneficial to support her. And that it's even less beneficial to go against you."
Anna didn't comment on the veiled threat. Her eyes flickered away from Draco for one second to watch her friend's face before returning to their original target. She trusted Daphne, she trusted that she knew what had to be done. The black haired girl nodded and motioned for the next person to start speaking. Blaise did.
"I got a few students in each house keeping their eyes open and their ears perked. They're keeping track on who supports Dumbledore and Harry and who support the Ministry of think that both of them are whacked." Blaise shrugged. "Most of the students and their don't believe the Dark Lord has returned but they don't go as far as to straight up support the Ministry, they think what the Minister is doing is outright disrespectful. Dumbledore was one of the most respected wizards and even if he's wrong or senile they still believe Fudge shouldn't be treating him like this. And all the students already hate Umbridge."
"Great." Anna cast him a look. "Make them drop a few hints here and there, I want Fudge as unpopular as he can get. The Educational Decrees will help with that, and Umbridge certainly will too, but I want him ready to leave the office by the end of the school year. End of sixth at the latest. I don't care if they have to help Dumbledore's image while they do it, nobody wants to believe the Dark Lord is back so that won't cause us any trouble."
She cast her friend a pleased smile and the boy smirked back. "You got it."
"What about you, darling?" She kissed Theo. "What have you got for me?"
"I have all the children of Death Eaters at your disposal." He answered cockily. "For some reason their parents don't question their loyalty or the reasons as to why they ask so many questions. I got them to tell me what their parents are doing and what interesting tidbits of information they hear around the castle. It won't be hard to convince them to follow your orders first once they leave Hogwarts, report what their orders are and follow yours instead. Could be useful later on."
Anna frowned in confusion. "Why would they do that? In fact, why would any of them follow me, don't they know what I did?"
"Well, the Death Eater children were all instructed by their parents to follow your instructions when at Hogwarts, but I think many of them prefer you over the Dark Lord. You know, you're with him but they know you. They've known you since either you or they were eleven years old so they know you well enough that you watch out for your own. If they're useful you'll keep them safe, from him or anyone else." Theo explained. "Somehow you're a safe haven right now. They're relying on you to keep them toeing the line in order to stay out of trouble no matter the outcome."
She snorted. "You're assuming that they don't have an idealistic preference between the Dark Lord and Dumbledore."
"To tell you the truth most don't." Daphne shrugged. "Dumbledore is just as bad as he is, both extreme light or extreme dark, there's no space to flourish freely in either of their worlds. That's precisely the thing. Having a society without muggleborns isn't exactly worth not having the freedom to do as you like you know."
"Fantastic, no pressure." Anna sighed, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "What about Umbridge?"
"Draco and I have been getting closer, as you asked. We've been having tea with her every other day." Pansy pretended to vomit. "Of course she likes us, we're a delight and we're purebloods and rich and our parents are influential. Plus, she thinks we support her and the Ministry. By the time you let Lord Malfoy to pass the Inquisitorial Squad thing to Fudge we'll definitely be in it. In fact, she might put us in charge of it."
"Get non-Death Eaters into the squad with you. Daphne will hand over the candidates when the time comes." Anna told her. "Do you have any clue about what she does in the detentions?"
Pansy shook her head. "Not completely. She said she makes the students do lines but I don't believe it, it's too soft for her."
"Lines?" Blaise scoffed. "As if, some of my Hufflepuff told me she tortures them. Or at least the student in their house came back from detention looking like he was about to pass out and that he didn't want to see Pomfrey. They think she's torturing them."
"Dig a bit more." Anna muttered. "If she's torturing students... children..." Her hands clenched tightly. She knew the feeling of torture; she'd never been crucio'ed but that didn't mean she had never been tortured. That was something she would never allow. "If she's torturing them I want to know. I want to know exactly how she's doing it and I'll make her feel that pain tenfold. I didn't bring a rabid dog into this school to let it off the leash."
Pansy swallowed but nodded slightly. "I'll see what we can find. The more she trusts us the more we'll discover."
"Good." Then she turned to Vince and Greg. "Speaking of discovering, what about the Weasley twins. Weren't you keeping an eye on them?"
Greg and Vince were an unlikely choice for a sleuthing operation, but the thing was that they could easily remember what they saw people do. They weren't very smart, admittedly, but people always thought they were blind too. Just because they couldn't exactly understand what people were doing that didn't mean that they couldn't see them doing it. in fact, sometimes people underestimated them so much that they would have complete conversations right in their range of hearing and think that they wouldn't come directly to Anna with whatever they heard.
Vince licked his lips, thinking deeply. "They watch you a lot, and they look angry."
"But they also don't look angry." Greg interrupted. "They look like they can't decide if they're angry or not."
The other nodded. "Yes, that. And the couple of times you talked to Potter we saw them just around the corner. They were listening."
"One time they almost stepped into your conversation, but you said goodbye before they got there." Greg continued. "One time I heard them talking to a couple of Ravenclaws, they were asking about you. The Ravenclaws didn't have much to say, only that they have Ancient Runes with you."
Vince nodded. "The Hufflepuffs said that they like you because you get Draco to leave them alone."
"Alright." Anna smiled. "Thank you, that tells me a lot."
"Yeah, like the fact that they at least know what you did and something else." Theo snarked. "What that something else is I don't know seeing as it seems to be making them doubt wether they hate you or not. And wether they should let Harry talk to you or not too."
"What could they possibly know?" Pansy asked. "I doubt their parents told them anything, let alone Dumbledore."
Anna groaned. "Fantastic. Blaise, do me a favour and find out what they know. As soon as possible, I don't want any nasty surprises."
The boy nodded. "That'll take time though; the Gryffindors love them, it'll be difficult to convince them to listen in on them, let alone to actually get an opportunity to do so."
"Meanwhile," Daphne continued. "Isn't it time to piss everyone off just a tad more?"
"Quite."
Anna could hear the angry complaints all the way from her seat at the breakfast table. Without sparing the other students a glance she accepted the bite of lemon tart Theo offered her. He placed it in her mouth and then kissed her cheek. Somehow she thought he'd been getting more affectionate and possessive lately. Not that she minded, she could use the comfort and the feeling of being wanted.
She pushed aside the copy of the Daily Prophet she had in her hands and started on her morning tea. What could it possibly tell her that she didn't already know? That Umbridge had been appointed High Inquisitor? Definitely not, she was the one who appointed her.